Chapter 8: A Partner for the Ball

[Stella]

Stella was on her way to her dorm when she passed by the cafeteria door stopping suddenly. The smell of deliciousness was overwhelming. How long had it been since she had a decent meal? It felt like years. Well it was time to remedy that situation.

She slipped into the bright bubbling cafeteria of Balamb Garden. It was like a second home to her. There had been many nights when she had sat here with her books and a plate of French fries studying away. The cafeteria was the same... but she was a different girl now.

Stella grabbed one of the brightly colored trays and headed down the buffet eying all the food laid out for the hungry students and SeeD. Grinning she slid right down to the pizza and grabbed a few tasty looking slices and a soda. A large brownie for desert topped off the oh so un-healthy meal.

It felt weird as she handed in her SeeD card to pay for the meal. Glancing around the cafeteria she spotted a large open table near by. Sliding into one of the chairs she made herself comfortable and dug in.

The ball could wait. Food was far more important.

[Lawric]

Lawric smirked at Jaime, shaking his head slightly as she marched him along with her. Upset one second, flouncing about and smiling the next...

They came to the elevator together, and Lawric pressed the button to open the door. No one seemed to be rushing out to it, so after they had stepped inside, he allowed it to slide shut.

He whistled something off-key while they waited for the elevator to take them down. He felt a sort of sadness creep it's way over him, suddenly remembering how his off-key whistling was one of the things that used to drive Signe insane. He had only ever done it out of habit, of course. Deo was the one that liked to intentionally light her fuse.

The doors slid open, and Jaime pulled him out with her cheerily, which brushed away his thoughts.

"Hah, are we eager to eat?" he remarked down at his blonde-haired friend as they followed the marble pathway toward the cafeteria.

[waterlily43]

"No I meant loading bullets into your mouth. Well d'uh, of course it means eating." Jun smiled up at Zacke, glad that he didn't resist her attempts to waylay him. He definitely looked there was something on his mind but she took the job upon herself to make him feel better. Maybe it was her big-sister concern for him, she couldn't really explain it well, but this was someone who had stuck up or had her back several times, it was only right that she gave him help when he obviously needed it.

They strode into the cafeteria, a satisfying spread of food laying before them.

"So what are you having? Don't worry, my treat." She grinned.

"Ah Lawric you have noooo idea. I haven't eaten today at all!" Jaime exclaimed loudly, not looking in front and barrelled boisterously into Jun, causing the other girl to cry out in pain and lightly bang against Zacke .

"OOps sorry!" Jaime apologized just as loudly, putting a hand to her mouth. "Damn I seem to be having a bad day. Sorry Jun."

[Lex]

Lawric passed Jaime a brief frown before turning to Jun and the blonde she was with. "Uhh, sorry, we obviously weren't watching where we were going." he said, mostly speaking to Jun only because he knew her.

Wait--

He blinked and looked back at Zacke. That's the boxers guy.

"Hey, you guys are the Opps, right?" Zacke said. "My name is Zacke."

Zacke... Lawric nodded politely. "I'm Lawric... this is Jaime." he cocked his head at the bubbly girl standing next to him.

Zacke flashed a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you guys. Me and Jun are headed to the cafeteria, are you hungry? I know the mission is over and all, but it'd be cool to get to know you guys a little more." He grinned, completely oblivious of the little exchange that had taken place between Jun and Jaime only minutes earlier.

Lawric's gaze wavered uneasily between Jaime and Jun. Jun didn't seem as menacing as before. Maybe she wouldn't mind? "We're headed there too, actually." he said to Zacke. "Yeah, we'll join you." he glanced at Jun again, smiling a bit.

[waterlily43]

Jun cast an annoyed glance at Jaime, but decided not to dwell on her annoyance. She didn't want to make a fuss, and make things awkward for Zacke and Lawrick.

It's not as if I'm that petty, right.

/Oh, I would say yes, but you never listen to me anyway so what's the point of asking?/

Jun ignored Sapphy snobbishly, cracking a small smile at Jaime to show that she wasn't blaming her---well at least she tried to convince herself that she wasn't, but a little niggling dislike still lingered. She hoped it would fade away soon, she didn't want to have uncordial relations with people she had fought together with.

After they had all picked out their food, Jun walked ahead of their little group, looking for familiar faces and found one after a while. She approached the large table where Stella was seated at.

"Hey Stella." She greeted with a laden tray in her hands. "Mind if we sit here?"

[Stella]

Stella looked up and swallowed a mouthful of food before answering.

"Suit yourself" she said motioning to the large amount of empty chairs around the table.

[Zacke]

Zacke placed his tray laden with a large hamburger and a heaping pile of salty, greasy french fries down on the tabletop directly across from Stella, and sat down on the bench. His drink was a water--but only because he didn't want soda to make his stomach bloat.

/Oh, you really look like you're trying to watch your figure./ Iris remarked sarcastically.

He looked at Stella, ignoring his ever-opinionated Guardian.

"Hey, I never got to, uh--properly meet you." he grinned a bit, remembering the state he had been in when they first met. "Sorry about the strip tease, by the way. Ask Jun, sometimes I just can't help myself." he let out a laugh. Laughing the incident off was definitely the best way to get over the awkwardness of it--for him, anyway. "So... what's your name?"

[Lawric]

Lawric followed Jaime around the table, who planted herself down next to Stella and across from Jun. He placed his tray down on the table and sat down next to her.

Zacke began gabbing right away, but Lawric was a little distracted. He was told by the cafeteria lady that this piece of workmanship on the tray before him was a tuna sandwich. It actually looked rather like two dry white sponges, and when he pulled one of them open and laid it to the side, he found an interesting looking mix of something that reminded him of a coughed up cat hairball.

He passed Jaime a questioning look. She definitely hadn't been referring to the tuna sandwich when she said the food wasn't bad. He looked back down at it.

/FEAST!!!/

He jumped and blinked, noticeably startled by his screaming Guardian. He must have forgotten she had been junctioned, she had been so unusually docile lately... He unjunctioned her with a grimace, furtively glancing across at Jun and Zacke to see if they had noticed. Zacke was too caught up in talking to Stella. Jun hadn't seemed to notice...

He looked back down at the tray.

Alright, if you can brave the Shumi's steamed-worm-and-bark-flakes monstrosity, you can brave a funky looking tuna sandwich.

He picked it up and took a cautious bite, chewing slowly. It was a far cry from what he knew Jaime could whip-up. But it actually wasn't that bad.

---

I hope it's okay that I moved Jaime! I just wanted to get them all seated. ^_^

[Jun]

AHAHAHA SKADI CRACKS ME UP XDXDXD
And of course I don't mind XD
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Jun smirked at Zacke, then at Stella at his comment about himself and the "striptease", not trusting herself to speak without spraying everyone across the table with food. She shifted her glance away, inadvertently landing on Jaime, who was pigging out on her meal, then on Lawric. And it stopped there.

He had took his sandwich apart and handling it with the caution and nervousness usually associated with explosives, the expression on his face anything but what of one should have when enjoying food.

She looked at his sandwich.

Oh. She was having difficulty swallowing without choking up with the laugh that was squirrelling up her throat.

"I..haha...I usually avoid the tuna sandwich." She glanced at his chewing mouth, then met his eyes, her mouth trembling while trying to contain the laugh with horribly weak results. "Cos it doesn't match with my motto that food should look like food and not something a pet threw up."

[ST]

Holy freakin' crap I should go to funerals more often. No, actually not really. -_-;; What I mean is, hurray for postage XD

I'm gonna miss Sho.
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EBIL ST TIME!!


As everyone started filing out one by one, Squall called Sho Miyavi aside.

"This is regarding the infiltration mission Galbadia Garden launched in Esthar." he started, pulling out a folder. "Do you by any chance know the SeeD elitist, Celeste Savrigne?" The commander paused. "I've received a message requesting to inform you that her corpse was located along with 2 other SeeDs. She was found near DoTNA's old headquarters and had been exposed to harsh experimentations. There were high levels of unknown drugs injected in her body." He gave Sho the folder, continuing slowly. "She is currently being held in Galbadia Garden with no relatives whatsoever to inform of her death. Here is the whole file."

Squall weaved his fingers. "A DoTNA spy who bore the same symptoms was being kept in the infirmary as well. Fortunately, Rinoa managed to get to him before his whole body shot down. Once he's able to communicate, we plan to interrogate him more about the matter. I will keep you posted. This is the least I can do."

Xu decided to cut in the conversation. Right now, how the death came about might not be number one concern for the young man. "Along with the other SeeDs, I'm grateful for your help with the Trinity mission and would like to thank you at the SeeD ball," she said. "However, with the mission completed, I no longer have the right to stop you from going back to Galbadia Garden." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Do what you will, Mr. Miyavi." With this, she nodded approvingly.

[stardust]

About to leave the room, Stardust looked back when she overheard Squall's comment about the spy at the infirmary. Her lips parted slightly as she listened some more. She couldn't help but overhear the deal with Sho Miyavi as well. He didn't look like his usual self to her since yesterday. She figured this wasn't the right time to judge him. But...

Rinoa took care of Reese Amaerick? she thought, her face coming to an ease. What does that mean? Was this perhaps the effect of her wish? It was almost as surreal as Adel's death. She placed her gaze on the ground. Her face was blank. Reese was out of comatose. It still hadn't sunk in.

That idiot... she said to herself as she briskly walked towards the elevator. He's going to wake up. It felt light. Her chest felt light. She doubled her pace, feeling herself smirk.

[vanesse]

"Deoooo!!" Van exclaimed. Deo fell asleep in the hallway. "Jaime and Lawric already went down. We're not going to get lunch if you keep sleeping." She dragged him towards the elevator. Mashing the down button, the doors shut leaving her time to catch her breath. Dragging Deo was like dragging 3 sacks of potatoes. The guy was really heavy. If she hadn't been doing this as often, she wouldn't have been able to do it.

Still. They didn't have to leave us. Vanesse pouted.

/Who wouldn't leave you? You were daydreaming and Deo was already in the hands of Morpheus from the get go./ Paridge reminded.

"Oh, here we go again." Vanesse muttered. "Let's go, Deo." Once again, she dragged Deo out of the elevator. She spotted the rails right away and slumped him there.

"Whew. Now, lessee...." She stood near the elevator where she could get a better view of the circular walkway. There were a lot of corridors leading to different areas.

Crap.

/What's wrong this time?/

Where is the cafeteria again? Her stomach grumbled. Vanesse's face lit up when the elevator opened and Stardust came out.

"Stardust!" Van jogged towards her. "Thank goodness. Um, do you know where's the cafeteria--?"

Stardust just shot her a weird look and went on her way. She looked like she was in a hurry.

"Err....that helped." She watched the pinkhead swerve into the corner.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

"Her name is Hadrian's girl toy," Hadrian barged in pointing to Stella. He was carrying his laptop and chewing a gum. He had just entered the cafeteria when he overheard Zacke asking for her name. Clearly, he was kidding, but it wouldn't hurt to goof around every now and then, would it?

Hadrian didn't bother to seat down with them since the table seemed full and he was holding his laptop instead of a tray. In compensation, the hacker gave his teammates a friendly smile. "Hello there, Zacke the Stripteaser, and the...new guy." He nodded. "The name's Hadrian D'Arcell. Pleasure." Scanning everyone's faces in the table, he asked. "So who's thinking of ditching the SeeD Ball?" His mouth smirked.

He didn't feel like going. More importantly, he didn't know who to ask. Even if he did have one, she would be way too dumb to notice. It might be better to start a faction and boycott the social gathering.

"I bet you it's just going to be a night of bloody mawkishness." Hyne, he hated mawkishness.

[Stella]

Stella gave the hugest eye roll of her life as Hadrian spoke. So much for making a good first impression. She shook her head and leaned across the table and snagged one of Zacko's French fries.

"Actually my name Stella, and I'm only Hady's girl toy in his dreams" she said munching down the French fry with a happy smile. Ah the food at the Garden was so good. She had to hand it to this Zacko guy, he was cute at least.

"I'm actually rather looking forward to the ball" She shot Hadrian a dirty look then turned her gaze back to Zacke with a smile and a wink, "he's just bitter because he dances like a walrus"

"So Stardust tells me your name is Zacko..." Stella said stealing another of his fries considering going and getting herself some.

[Rayden]

Rayden sauntered down the pathway that led towards the elevator, hands in his pockets and sulking like a little kid who was denied his Christmas present.

I can't believe this is the way she treats Rayden the Irresistible. The least she could do was say no, but did she? Nooooooo she didn't even look at this direction. What gives? This is the last time I take pity on depressed women, they're no fun. He snarled at no one in particular, pressing harshly at the elevator button as if it owed him a million gil, then entering with petulant steps when the doors opened.

/Well it's really your own fault for picking the stupidest time to ask. They were discussing serious matters. Ariadnialla did not try to soothe him at all. What kind of GF was this unsupportive, knowing he was down in the dumps and rubbing salt in?

Still...a simple glare would've sufficed. His sulk deepened, and he blindly walked out of the elevator, almost stumbling upon a short figure at the railing.

"Whoa, what are you rooting here for? Admiring the scenery?" He asked the girl, then immediately recognised Vanesse, while Deo was slumping at the side, visibly snoring. "If you're not careful you might get trampled on." He finished with a slight smile.